[EL] Voter turnout

[Larry Levine]

Just to be clear, I did not suggest removing people from the rolls for not
voting. Others in the room may have implied that from the presentation of
the information. I simply pointed out that the low percentage of voter
turnout may not be accurate if we consider the fact that large numbers of
voters may no longer be living at the addresses at which they are
registered. I was going to pursue the subject of possible other ways to
clean the list without purging for non-voting. But we ran out of time. 

Larry

 

From: law-election-bounces at department-lists.uci.edu
[mailto:law-election-bounces at department-lists.uci.edu] On Behalf Of David A.
Holtzman
Sent: Thursday, April 10, 2014 12:11 AM
To: law-election at department-lists.uci.edu
Subject: Re: [EL] Voter turnout

 

Well, it's actually the CLAMERC.
(pause)
The City of Los Angeles Municipal Elections Reform Commission.
http://electionscommission.lacity.org/ 

At one CLAMERC meeting Larry handed out the attached (with my scribbles
added), and suggested that maybe we (the city) could improve our dismal
turnout rates by excising some of the deadweight from the denominator.

At which point others pointed out legal obstacles to removing people from
registration rolls for not voting.

But I have suggested allowing non-citizen legal residents to vote in city
elections.  And that would require a separate registration roll.  (L.A.
would be conducting its elections differently from federal elections, but in
accordance with its values.  I think at least one proof-of-citizenship state
[Alabama?] is already maintaining two registration rolls so it can conduct
its own nonfederal elections in accordance with its values.)  

Could L.A. start anew, and build a municipal election registration roll from
scratch?  One that would presumably contain fewer people who are dead (or
have moved out of the city).

L.A. is a home rule, charter city, which allows it to have election methods
that do not follow general state law.  And the CLAMERC may propose rule
changes requiring charter amendments.  But we have to follow the U.S.
Constitution, so compulsory voting may be out of the question.  Sorry, Rick.

  - dah





On 4/9/2014 9:35 PM, Rick Hasen wrote:

Compulsory voting?

On 4/9/14, 9:30 PM, Larry Levine wrote:

I have been appointed as a member of the Los Angeles City Advisory
Commission on Political Reform. I am a member of the sub-committee on
research. The main charge of the commission is to look into actions that
might increase turnout in municipal elections. Can anyone on the list
provide some recent research on this subject? Nothing is off limits - change
of election dates, consolidation with other elections, early voting,
expanded number of voting dates, etc. 

Thanks,

Larry






_______________________________________________
Law-election mailing list
Law-election at department-lists.uci.edu
http://department-lists.uci.edu/mailman/listinfo/law-election





-- 
Rick Hasen
Chancellor's Professor of Law and Political Science
UC Irvine School of Law
401 E. Peltason Dr., Suite 1000
Irvine, CA 92697-8000
949.824.3072 - office
949.824.0495 - fax
rhasen at law.uci.edu
http://www.law.uci.edu/faculty/full-time/hasen/
http://electionlawblog.org






_______________________________________________
Law-election mailing list
Law-election at department-lists.uci.edu
http://department-lists.uci.edu/mailman/listinfo/law-election

 

-- 
David A. Holtzman, M.P.H., J.D.
david at holtzmanlaw.com 

Notice: This email (including any files transmitted with it) may be
confidential, for use only by intended recipients.  If you are not an
intended recipient or a person responsible for delivering this email to an
intended recipient, be advised that you have received this email in error
and that any use, dissemination, forwarding, printing or copying of this
email is strictly prohibited.  If you have received this email in error,
please immediately notify the sender and discard all copies.

 

-------------- next part --------------
An HTML attachment was scrubbed...
URL: <http://webshare.law.ucla.edu/Listservs/law-election/attachments/20140410/e6f693a7/attachment.html>